Information output control apparatus and point-of-sale system

ABSTRACT

An information processing system includes a code reader, an information processing apparatus configured to receive codes read by the code reader, and a first printer in communication with the information processing apparatus. Upon receiving a first code which indicates printing information and a second code which indicates a target printer, the information processing apparatus selects the target printer indicated by the second code, and transmits the printing information indicated by the first code to the target printer. The first printer receives from the information processing apparatus the printing information and prints the printing information, when the first printer is indicated by the second code as the target printer.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/008,147, filed on Jan. 27, 2016, which is based upon and claims thebenefit of priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 2015-017447,filed on Jan. 30, 2015, the entire contents of each of which areincorporated herein by reference.

FIELD

Embodiments described herein relate generally to an information outputcontrol apparatus and point-of-sale system.

BACKGROUND

In recent years, a POS (Point Of Sales) system has become commonplaceand used in a store that sells products and services. In one example,the POS system comprises a POS terminal and a plurality of peripheraldevices which are connected with each other in a wired or wirelessmanner. These peripheral devices include, for example, a barcode scannerand a receipt issuing device.

In the POS system, the POS terminal (host device) communicates with thereceipt issuing device (recording device) and a receipt is issuedthrough the receipt issuing device.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example layout of a control systemaccording to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating functional components of a POSterminal, an identification information reading device and a receiptissuing device.

FIGS. 3A-3B illustrate two examples of POS system arrangement in astore.

FIG. 4A is a flowchart illustrating an example of an operation forissuing a receipt according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4B is a flowchart illustrating an example of a processingcommunications between a reading device and the POS terminal accordingto the embodiment.

FIG. 5A is a table for associating each of different identificationinformation with device identifiers for receipt issuing devices or withcommodity information.

FIG. 5B is a table for associating each of different identificationinformation with device identifiers for receipt issuing devices, withcommodity information, or with device identifiers for POS terminals.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

According to an embodiment, an information processing system includes acode reader, an information processing apparatus configured to receivecodes read by the code reader, and a first printer in communication withthe information processing apparatus. Upon receiving a first code whichindicates printing information and a second code which indicates atarget printer, the information processing apparatus selects the targetprinter indicated by the second code, and transmits the printinginformation indicated by the first code to the target printer. The firstprinter receives from the information processing apparatus the printinginformation and prints the printing information, when the first printeris indicated by the second code as the target printer.

Hereinafter, the embodiment is described with reference to theaccompanying drawings. FIG. 1 shows an example layout of a controlsystem 100 (information output control system) according to the presentembodiment.

For example, the control system 100 comprises a plurality of POSterminals 110 (110 a, 110 b, 110 c, . . . ) as the informationprocessing apparatuses, a plurality of identification informationreading devices 120 (120 a, 120 b, 120 c, . . . ) and a plurality ofreceipt issuing devices 130 (130 a, 130 b, . . . ) as the informationoutput devices. For example, one POS terminal 110 a and oneidentification information reading device 120 a are wirelessly connectedwith each other, and one POS terminal 110 a and one receipt issuingdevice 130 a are wirelessly connected with each other. Even in a case ofconnecting each of devices in a wired manner or in a case of connectingsome of these devices in a wired manner, an information output controlprocessing described hereinafter can be applied,

One identification information reading device 120 a can wirelesslycommunicate with one POS terminal 110 a associated with theidentification information reading device 120 a in advance or one P05terminal 110 a selected through the reading of identificationinformation, and one POS terminal 110 a can wirelessly communicate withone receipt issuing device 130 a selected through the reading ofidentification information. A method of selecting one POS terminal 110 athrough the reading of the identification information and a method ofselecting one receipt issuing device 130 a through the reading of theidentification information are described below in detail.

The identification information reading device 120 can readidentification information recording medium 140 (140 a, 140 b, used toidentify the receipt issuing device 130 and identification informationrecording medium 150 (150 a, 150 b, . . . ,) used to identify acommodity. Further, the identification information reading device 120can read identification information recording medium used to identifythe P05 terminal 110 as described below.

The identification information recording medium 140 a includes uniqueidentification information la; similarly, the identification informationrecording medium 150 a includes unique identification information 2a;and similarly, the identification information recording medium 305 aincludes unique identification information 3 a. The identificationinformation recording medium 140 is prepared in response to each receiptissuing device 130 to identify each receipt issuing device 130. Forexample, the identification information recording medium 140 a isattached to the receipt issuing device 130 a and the identificationinformation recording medium 305 a is attached to the POS terminal 110a. The identification information recording medium 150 is prepared inresponse to each commodity to identify the each commodity. For example,the identification information recording medium 150 a is attached to acommodity A and the identification information recording medium 150 b isattached to a commodity B.

For example, the identification information reading device 120 reads theidentification information 1 a from the identification informationrecording medium 140 a and transmits the read identification information1 a to the POS terminal 110 a associated in advance or the P05 terminal110 a selected through the reading of the identification information.The identification information reading device 120 reads theidentification information 2 a from the identification informationrecording medium 150 a and transmits the read identification information2 a to the POS terminal 110 a associated in advance or the POS terminal110 a selected through the reading of the identification information.

In the present embodiment, the control system 100 that includes aplurality of POS terminals 110, a plurality of identificationinformation reading devices 120 and a plurality of receipt issuingdevices 130 is mainly described; however, the control system 100 may beconstituted by one POS terminal 110, one identification informationreading device 120 and one receipt issuing device 130.

Various devices of the control system 100 of the present embodiment maywirelessly communicate with each other directly or indirectly through anaccess point. The wireless communication is assumed as a wireless LAN ora Bluetooth®, a ZigBee®, and the like.

In the present embodiment, the control system 100 can be a part of a POSsystem for executing a checkout processing to be applicable to a storesuch as a supermarket, a convenience store and a restaurant. It isassumed that the identification information reading device 120 is aportable barcode scanner or a portable RFID (Radio FrequencyIdentification) reader and that the identification information recordingmediums 140, 150, 305 are bar-codes or RFID tags,

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating functional components of the POSterminal 110, the identification information reading device 120 and thereceipt issuing device 130. The POS terminal 110 includes acommunication section 212, a storage section 214, an identificationinformation comparison section 215, an input section 216, a displaysection 217 and a control section 211 for controlling these sections.

The communication section 212 is a functional block for communicatingwith various devices and includes a POS terminal wireless communicationsection 213 that wirelessly communicates with the identificationinformation reading device 120 and the receipt issuing device 130,

The storage section 214 stores an identification information table T1for associating the identification information with price of a commodityor the receipt issuing device 130. For example, as shown in FIG. 5A, theidentification information table T1 includes information for associatingthe identification information 1 a with a device ID of the receiptissuing device 130 a, associating the identification information 1 bwith a device ID of the receipt issuing device 130 b, associatingidentification information 2 a with information relating to thecommodity A. (price and name of the commodity) and associatingidentification information 2 b with information relating to thecommodity B (price and name of the commodity).

The identification information comparison section 215 compares theidentification information with reference to the identificationinformation table T1 stored in the storage section 214 and outputs thecomparative result to the control section. For example, theidentification information comparison section 215 selects the device IDof the receipt issuing device 130 a. based on the identificationinformation. 1 a and outputs the selected device ID of the receiptissuing device 130 a. to the control section. Further, theidentification information table T1 is stored in an external device, andthe POS terminal 110 may transmit the identification information (e.g.identification information 1 a) to the external device and receive inresponse thereto information (e.g. device ID of the receipt issuingdevice 130 a) associated with the transmitted identificationinformation.

A keyboard or various switches are assumed as the input section 216 thatoutputs input information to the control section 211. The displaysection 217, which is assumed to be a liquid crystal panel, displays theinformation input from the control section 211. Further, the POSterminal 110 may not include the input section 216 and the displaysection 217 and may use an external input device and external outputdevice through the communication section 212.

The identification information reading device 120 includes a readingdevice control section. 221, an identification information readingsection 222 and a reading device wireless communication section 223. Theidentification information reading section 222 is a functional block forreading identification information and outputs the read identificationinformation to the reading device control section 221. The readingdevice control section 221 outputs the identification information inputfrom the identification information reading section 222 to the readingdevice wireless communication section 223. The reading device wirelesscommunication section 223 transmits the input identification informationto the POS terminal wireless communication section 213.

The receipt issuing device 130 includes an issuing device controlsection 231, a receipt issuing section 232 and an issuing devicewireless communication section 233. The issuing device wirelesscommunication section 233 receives information transmitted from the P05terminal wireless communication section 213 and outputs the receivedinformation to the issuing device control section 231. If theinformation input from the issuing device wireless communication section233 is receipt information, the issuing device control section 231outputs the input information to the receipt issuing section 232 whichissues a receipt based on the input information.

Next, in the case where a shop clerk carries out a checkout processing'on commodities desired to be purchased by a shopper, basic operations ofa receipt issuing processing are described. In the example shown in FIG.3A, the identification information reading device 120 (120 a, 120 b, 120c, . . . ) is described as a barcode scanner 302 (302 a, 302 b, 302 c, .. . ), the receipt issuing device 130 (130 a, 130 b, 130 c, . . . ) isdescribed as a receipt printer 303 (303 a, 303 b, 303 c, . . . ) and theidentification information recording medium 140 (140 a, 140 b, 140 c, .. . ) is described as a barcode 304 (304 a, 304 b, 304 c, . . . ). FIG.3A illustrates one example of the device arrangement in the store. Aregister counter 301 a is arranged at a register setting position P100a, and the POS terminal 110 a and the barcode scanner 302 a capable ofwirelessly communicating with the POS terminal 110 a are arranged on theregister counter 301 a. Similarly, a register counter 301 b, the POSterminal 110 b and the barcode scanner 302 b are arranged at a registersetting position P100 b, and a register counter 301 c, the POS terminal110 c and the barcode scanner 302 c are arranged at a register settingposition P100 c. Further, the barcode scanner 302 a is associated withthe POS terminal 110 a through a previous mutual authentication and itis set that the barcode scanner 302 a wirelessly communicates with thePOS terminal 110 a, which is similar to the relationship between thebarcode scanner 302 b and the POS terminal 110 b and the relationshipbetween the barcode scanner 302 c and the POS terminal 110 c.

The receipt printers 303 a and 303 b are arranged at a printer settingposition P200. The barcode 304 a corresponding to the identificationinformation 1 a associated with the receipt printer 303 a is attached tothe receipt printer 303 a, and the barcode 304 b corresponding to theidentification information 1 b associated with the receipt printer 303 bis attached to the receipt printer 303 b. Even if the barcode 304 a isnot directly attached to the receipt printer 303 a, the barcode 304 amay be arranged so that it is understood that the barcode 304 acorresponds to the receipt printer 303 a. Similarly, the barcode 304 bmay be arranged so that it is understood that the barcode 304 bcorresponds to the receipt printer 303 b. The association of the receiptprinter 303 a and the identification information la is stored in thestorage section 214 of each POS terminal 110 (110 a, 110 b, (refer tothe identification information table T1 of FIG. 5A). Similarly, theassociation of the receipt printer 303 b and the identificationinformation 1 b is stored in the storage section 214 of each POSterminal 110 (refer to the identification information table T1 of FIG.5A).

In the example, it is assumed that the distance from the registersetting position P100 to the printer setting position P200 is about 5˜10m. Herein, it is described that a shop clerk A carries out the checkoutprocessing at the register setting position P100 a.

FIG. 4A is a flowchart illustrating an example of the operations(information output control) of the POS terminal 110, the receiptprinter 303 and the barcode scanner 302. The shop clerk. A uses the POSterminal 110 a to carry out a commodity registration of commoditiesdesired to be purchased by the shopper (ACT 410A). For example, the shopclerk A uses the barcode scanner 302 a to read the identificationinformation recording medium 150 (barcode) attached to the commodity A.The identification information reading section 222 reads barcodeinformation (identification information 2 a) from the identificationinformation recording medium 150 attached to the commodity A, and thereading device wireless communication section 223 transmits theidentification information 2 a to the POS terminal 110 a. The PCSterminal 110 a (the POS terminal wireless communication section 213)receives the identification information 2 a and the storage section 214stores the identification information 2 a. The identificationinformation comparison section 215 compares the identificationinformation table T1 stored in the storage section 214 with the receivedidentification information 2 a to derive information relating to thecommodity A (e.g. price and commodity name) that corresponds to thereceived identification information 2 a and registers the informationrelating to the commodity A. Alternatively, the shop clerk A may inputthe price of the commodity A from the input section 216 of the POSterminal 110 a. as the registration of the information relating to thecommodity A.

If the commodity registration of all commodities are completed, the shopclerk A conveys total amount to the shopper, receives money from theshopper and inputs the received money to the input section 216 of thePOS terminal 110 a (ACT 420A). Next, the shop clerk. A moves from theregister setting position P100 a to the printer setting position P200,carrying the barcode scanner 302 a. Then, the barcode scanner 302 a isused to read the identification information recording medium 140(barcode) attached to a receipt printer 303 to be used (ACT 430A).Herein, it is assumed that the receipt printer 303 a is used, theidentification information reading section 222 of the barcode scanner302 a reads the barcode information (identification information 1 a)according to the barcode 304 a attached to the receipt printer 303 a,and the reading device wireless communication section 223 transmits thebarcode information (identification information 1 a) to the POS terminal110 a (ACT 440A)

The POS terminal wireless communication section 213 receives the barcodeinformation (identification information 1 a) (ACT 450A) to determine areceipt printer being used (ACT 460A). That is, the identificationinformation comparison section 215 refers to the identificationinformation table T1 stored in the storage section 214 to derive(select) the receipt printer according to the received barcodeinformation. The barcode information is barcode information(identification information 1a) of the barcode 304 a, and thus thereceipt printer 303 a is derived (selected). The POS terminal 110 atransmits receipt printing information (output information) to thereceipt printer 303 a (ACT 470A).

The issuing device wireless communication section 233 of the receiptprinter 303 a receives the transmitted receipt printing information (ACT480A). The issuing device control section 231 of the receipt printer 303a outputs the received receipt printing information to the receiptissuing section 232 to carry out the receipt issuing processing by thereceipt issuing section 232 (ACT 490A). Then, the issued receipt istransferred to the shopper from the shop clerk A.

In the next example, it is assumed that the shop clerks A, B and Ccomplete the payment processing (ACT 420A) almost at the same timerespectively using the POS terminals 110 a, 110 b and 110 c, andthereafter, the shop clerks A, B and C subsequently move to the printersetting position P200. The shop clerk A who arrives at the printersetting position P200 first uses the barcode scanner 302 a to read thebarcode 304 a. Next, the shop clerk B who moves to the printer settingposition P200 second after the shop clerk A, uses the barcode scanner302 b to read the barcode 304 b attached to the register printer 303 bwhich is not used by the shop clerk A. Then, the shop clerk C who movesto the printer setting position P200 last, waits until the shop clerk Aor B takes the issued receipt, and reads the barcode 304 a or 304 battached to the receipt printer 303 a or 303 b which completed the issueof the receipt to the shop clerk A or B. In this way, even if thepayment processing is completed almost at the same time, a plurality ofreceipts is not issued from one receipt printer 303. Further, the usestatus of the receipt printer can be confirmed, and in that case areceipt can be issued from the selected receipt printer 303 a or 303 b.

As described above in detail, in accordance with the embodiment, even ifone or a plurality of receipt printers is arranged at a positionseparated from the POS terminal 110 and one or a plurality of receiptprinters is used in a shared manner, the receipts are issued in sequencefrom one or a plurality of receipt printers; however, as the receipt isissued in front of the shop clerk serving as the operator of the P05terminal, it is possible to prevent the receipt from being takenmistakenly.

In the above description, it is described that the barcode scanner 302 ais associated with the POS terminal 110 a in a one to one manner inadvance; however, a random barcode scanner can correspond to the PCSterminal. For example, as shown in FIG. 33, it is assumed that there isa plurality of P05 terminals 110 and a plurality of barcode scanners 302(302 a, 302 b, 302 c, 302 d, 302 e and 302 f) and that the number of thebarcode scanners 302 is more than the number of the POS terminals 110.

In the example shown in FIG. 43, the shop clerk A carries the barcodescanner 302 a to read a barcode 305 attached to a POS terminal 110 to beused (ACT 410B). Herein, it is assumed that the POS terminal 110 a isused, the identification information reading section 222 of the barcodescanner 302 a reads the barcode information (identification information3 a) according to the barcode 305 a attached to the POS terminal 110 a,and the reading device wireless communication section 223 transmits thebarcode information (identification information 3 a) and the device IDof the barcode scanner 302 a to each POS terminal 110 (110 a, 110 b . .. ) (ACT 420B).

The POS terminal wireless communication section 213 of each. POSterminal 110 receives the barcode information (identificationinformation 3 a) and the device ID of the barcode scanner 302 a (ACT430B), and each POS terminal 110 determines the association of the POSterminal and the barcode scanner 302 a (ACT 440B). That is, theidentification information comparison section 215 of each POS terminal110 refers to an identification information table T2 stored in thestorage section 214 to associate the barcode scanner 302 a with the POSterminal 110 a corresponding to the identification information 3 aaccording to the received barcode information (identificationinformation 3 a) and the device ID of the barcode scanner 302 a. In thisway, the communication between the POS terminal 110 a and the barcodescanner 302 a is established and the information from the barcodescanner 302 a is transmitted to the POS terminal 110 a.

After the POS terminal 110 a is associated with the barcode scanner 302a, similar to the information output control processing shown in FIG.4A, an information output control processing can be executed. After thereceipt printing information is transmitted, the POS terminal 110 areleases the association of the barcode scanner 302 a and the POSterminal 110 a. Alternatively, if the receipt is issued and receiptissuing completion information from the receipt printer is received, thePUS terminal 110 a releases the association of the barcode scanner 302 aand the POS terminal

For example, in a case in which there are plural shop clerks, it ispossible that the barcode scanner is distributed to each of the shopclerks to improve efficiency, and meanwhile the number of the POSterminals and that of the receipt printers are both less than that ofthe barcode scanners to reduce the system setup cost. Further, it ispossible that the number of the receipt printers is less than that ofthe POS terminals to further reduce the system setup cost. Moreover,each shop clerk can correctly receive a desired receipt withoutmistakes.

The above-mentioned procedures of the controls and the processing can beentirely executed by the software. Thus, through a computer-readablerecoding medium in which programs for executing the procedures of thecontrols and the processing are stored, the foregoing processing andcontrols can be realized by only executing the programs installed in thecontrol system 100 (for example, the POS terminal).

For example, the control system 100 (for example, the POS terminal)reads the foregoing programs from the computer-readable recoding medium,stores the read programs in a storage device of the storage section 214and completes the installation of the programs. Alternatively, thecontrol system 100 (for example, the POS terminal) downloads theforegoing programs, stores the downloaded programs in the storage deviceof the storage section 214 and completes the installation of theprograms. In this way, the control system 100 can realize the foregoingprocessing and controls easily on the basis of the foregoing installedprograms.

While certain embodiments have been described, these embodiments havebeen presented by way of example only, and are not intended to limit thescope of the invention. Indeed, the novel embodiments described hereinmay be embodied in a variety of other forms; furthermore, variousomissions, substitutions and changes in the form of the embodimentsdescribed herein may be made without departing from the spirit of theinvention. The accompanying claims and their equivalents are intended tocover such forms or modifications as would fall within the scope andspirit of the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. An information processing system comprising: acode reader; an information processing apparatus configured to receivecodes the code reader, wherein upon receiving a first code whichindicates printing information and a second code which indicates atarget printer, the information processing apparatus selects the targetprinter indicated by the second code, and transmits the printinginformation indicated by the first code to the target printer; and afirst printer in communication with the information processingapparatus, wherein the first printer receives from the informationprocessing apparatus the printing information and prints the printinginformation, when the first printer is indicated by the second code asthe target printer.
 2. The information processing system according toclaim 1, wherein the code reader is a barcode scanner configured towirelessly transmit the codes to the information processing apparatus,the barcode scanner reads the first code when the barcode scanner scansa first barcode attached to a commodity to identify the commodity, andthe barcode scanner reads the second code when the barcode scanner scansa second barcode that identifies the target printer.
 3. The informationprocessing system according to claim 1, wherein the informationprocessing apparatus is further configured to execute a checkoutprocessing based on identification information associated the firstcode, and generate the printing information based on the checkoutprocessing.
 4. The information processing system according to claim 3,wherein a receipt for the checkout processing is generated as theprinting information.
 5. The information processing system according toclaim 1 further comprising: a second printer in communication with theinformation processing apparatus, wherein the second printer receivesfrom the information processing apparatus the printing information andprints the printing information, when the second printer is indicated bythe second code as the target printer.
 6. A point-of-sale (POS)terminal, comprising: a communication interface configured to receivefirst and second codes read by a code reader, and to transmit printinginformation to a printer; and a control section configured to generatereceipt information using the first code, select a printer for printingthe receipt information using the second code, and transmit the receiptinformation to the selected printer for printing by the receipt printer.